Greeley's Boys Basketball Season Ends with Loss to Mt. Vernon

If Horace Greeley's boys basketball team was able to put forth a matching effort in the second half as they did in the first they may have been able to pull off what many thought was the impossible against Mount Vernon, a legendary Section 1 program.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to as Mount Vernon turned up its intensity and execution to a level where the Quakers just couldn't go.

The Knights went on to outscore visiting Horace Greeley by 20 points in the second half on their way to a 76-51 victory in Wednesday's Class AA quarterfinal game at Mount Vernon.

The Quakers played as well as they could in the first half -- even holding the lead twice -- and were only down 36-31 at the half. Despite the Knights' highly touted junior guard Jabarie Hinds going off for 20 of his game-high 35 points during the first two quarters, the Quakers did a good job limiting the other players and matching Mount Vernon's efforts.

Junior forward Matt Townsend, who scored a team-high 16 points, got some easy buckets in transition and converted a few tough layups. Senior guard Adam Honig was able to maintain his dribble and composure with the pressure from the Knights' guards and created his own shot and for his teammates quite effectively early on.

"We came out ready and did a good of job of limiting mistakes and staying right there with them," said Honig, who finished with 12 points. "We came out after halftime feeling confident that we are a good enough team to beat anybody in the section but we just weren't ready for what they threw at us in the second half. We tried to simulate it in practice but it's tough. Jabarie is a great player and we haven't come across that kind of pressure all year long."

The second half was the complete opposite of the first. Mount Vernon got whatever it wanted, scoring in the lane from mid range and in transition. The Knights stepped up their defense as well and began pressing the Quakers, creating turnovers and making Greeley look frantic.

Greeley had trouble executing its offense in the half court and buckets were tough to come by. The Quakers started to really unravel at the end of the third quarter. Coach Dave Fernandes was even hit with a technical foul at the 2:08 mark in the third quarter after arguing a questionable charging call on Townsend. After that point he was forced to sit his only real inside presence and the Knights extended the lead to 27 points.

"I just felt like they took us out of our sets offensively and did a nice job on Matt by giving him different looks, fronting him and playing behind him," Fernandes said. "They're a great team and Jabarie is one of the better players I've seen in my day so you have to give them credit."

Although the Quakers weren't able to advance to the County Center the future looks bright. They will bring back Townsend, Justin Cicero and Harrison Brown, with a few other wildcard players who could help the Quakers be right in the thick of things next year.